1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a dispenser for folded absorbent sheet products, preferably paper napkins.
2. Description of Related Art
Paper napkin dispensers used in commercial establishments include the widely used dispensers wherein a spring-loaded plate urges a stack of napkins along an entirely horizontal path toward a dispensing opening. In such dispensers, the amount of counter space occupied by the dispenser is at least equal to the length of the napkin stack plus the thickness of the surrounding housing structure. As a result, such dispensers tend to have a relatively low capacity, so as to occupy an acceptably small area of counter space. Low capacity napkin dispensers have drawbacks that include that they must be refilled more often by the personnel of the establishment, and are more likely to be empty when the customer seeks to use them. Each refilling operation typically results in a certain fixed amount of wasted napkins near the ends of the inserted stack, so a dispenser that must be refilled more often would be expected to suffer a higher ratio of waste product to useable product.
Napkin dispensers in which the napkin stack travels entirely vertically downwardly toward a downwardly-directed dispensing opening, also reveal certain limitations with respect to their ability to be positioned on a horizontal supporting surface. A downwardly-directed dispensing opening must for hygiene purposes be positioned sufficiently high above the horizontal surface supporting the dispenser, so that a user when withdrawing one or more napkins from the dispenser, preferably touches only the fresh napkin(s) to be withdrawn, and not the underlying counter surface or the surrounding dispenser housing. That calls for a relatively tall stand, which, when combined with a relatively high-capacity dispenser body, results in an overall dispenser structure having an undesirably high center of gravity. An example of such a dispenser is shown in U.S. design Pat. No. D463,183 in the name of Tramontina. Such dispensers therefore require that the base either be bolted to the supporting surface, or that the base be made sufficiently large and heavy to prevent the dispenser from tipping over when in use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,100,020 and Des. 331,515 show a napkin dispenser in which the dispenser body follows a continuous curve, to hold a stack of off-fold napkins that, in the absence of outside forces, follows a curve having a predetermined radius of curvature matching that of the dispenser; however, such a dispenser would be expected to be somewhat awkward for use with napkins that are folded such that the unbiased stack orientation is straight.